Faculty - Graduate Certificate in Applied Demography

My biggest hurdle was balancing a full-time course load and a military career. While finishing my degree, I averaged nine months a year deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq -- first as a forward air controller with the Air Force and then as a civilian defense contractor. The flexibility of my instructors and the staff at the World Campus is the only reason that I was able to finish my degree. Everyone went above and beyond to make sure I had options for turning my work in or taking a test, no matter what the circumstances were. I can remember taking my textbooks on patrol, then turning in several weeks’ worth of assignments all at once when I got back to the base for my poor professor to grade.

Dustin Hatfield

Idaho

Stephen Matthews

B.Sc. Geography, University of Bristol, UK
Ph.D. Planning, University of Wales College of Cardiff (now Cardiff University), UK

For the past five years Dr. Matthews has served as director of the residential dual-degree Graduate Program in Demography (60+ students) and currently serves as co-editor of the flagship journal, Demography. Dr. Matthews is trained in quantitative geography, GIS and planning. He has been at Penn State 24 years, during which time he founded and led the Geographic Information Analysis Core for over 17 years. He has served on the advisory board to Penn State’s MGIS and Certificate Programs in GIS for over a decade; and he is a regular capstone supervisor for the MGIS program.